The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-10-28
nALMAGES SERMON.
'sForbidden Honey the Theme of
an Interesting Discourse.
The Various AIIuring Pitfalls ~ hiOh May
be Included in the Category, and the
the Moral Ruin They Lead to-
Safety Only in ObeGience.


For the subject of a recent sermon at the
Brooklyn Tabernacle, Rev. 7. Dewitt
Talmage took forbidden Honey" the
text being:
did but taste q little honey with the end OF
the rod that in my hand, and 10, must
dte-L Samuel xiv, 43
Dr.. TaImage said: The honey bee IL =
most ingenious architect, a Christopher
Wren among insects, a geometer drawing
hexagons and pentagons, a freebooter
robbing the fields of pollen and aroma, a
wondrOus creature of God whose
biography, written by Huber and Swami
meridian, is an enchantment for any lover
of nature. Virgil celebrated the bee in
his fable of Aristeus, and Moses, and
Samuel, and David, and Solomon, and
jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and st. John used
the delicacies of bee manufa cture as q
Bible symbol. A miracle of formation is
the bee; five eyes, two tongues, the outer
having a sheath of protection hairs on all
sides of its tiny body to brush up the
particles of flowers, its flight so straight
that all the world knows of the bee line.
The honey is a palace suoh as no
one but God could plan, and the honey bee
construct; its cells sometimes a
dormitory, and sometimes q store
house, and sometimes a cemetery. These
winged toiers first make eight strips of
wax, and by their antenn@, which are 20
them hammer, and chisel, and square, and
plumb-line, fashion them for use. Two
and two, these workers shape the wall. If
an accident happen they put up but
tresses or extra beams to remedy the dam
age. When about the year 1776 an insect,
before unknown, in the night time attack
ed the bee-hives ali over Europe, and the
men who owned them were in vain trying
to plan some thing to keep out the in
vader that was the terror of the bee-hives
of the continent, it was found that every
where the bees had arranged for their
own protection, aud built before their
honey combs an especial wall of wax with
port -hole through which the bees might
go to and fro, but not large enough to ad-
NIT the winged combatant, called the
sphinx atropos.
Do you know that the swarming of the
bees is divinely directed? The mother bee
starts for new home, and because of this
the other bees of the hive get into some
excitement, which raises the heat of the
hive some four degrees, Fand they must
die unless they leave their heated apart
ments, and they foil ow the mother bee
and alight on the branch of a tree,
and cling to each other and hold on until
a committee of two or three have explored
the region and found the hollow of a tree
or rock not far off from stream of water,
and they here set up a new colony and
ply their aromatic industries, and give
themselves to the manufacture of the sac
charine edible. But who can tell the
chemistry of that mixture of sweetness,
part of it the very life of the bee and part
of it the life of the fields?
Plenty of this luscious product was
hanging in the woods of Breth- aven dur
ing the time of Saul and Jonatha Their
army was in pursuit of an enemy that by
Gods command must be exterminated.
The soldiery were positively forbidden to
stop to eat any thing until the work was
done. If they disobeyed they were ac-
cursed. Coming through the woods they
found a place where the bees had been
busy-a great honey mandatory. Honey
gathered in the hollow of trees until it
had overfowed upon the ground in great
profusion of sweetness. All the army
Obeyed orders and touched it not, save
Jonathan, and he, not knowing the mili-
Jary order about abstinence, dipped the
end of a stick be had in his hand
into the candied liquid, and as, yel-
low, and brown, and tempting, it glowed
on the end of the stick, he put it to his
mouth and ate the honey. Judgment fell
upon him, and but for special Intervention
he would have been slain. In my text
/ did but taste little honey with the end
OF the rod that was in my hand, and, 10, must
die
Alas, what multitudes of people in all
ages have been damaged by forbidden
honey-by which I mean temptation-de-
licious and attractive, but damaging and
destructive.
Literature, fascinating but deathful,
comes in this category. Where one good,
honest, healthful book is read now there
are one hundred made up of rhetorical
trash consumed with avidity. When the
boy on the cars comes through with pile
of publications, look over the titles and
notice that nine out Of ten of the books are
depicting and injurious. All the way
from New York to Chicago or New Or
leans, notice that Objectionable books
dominate. Taste for pure literature is
poisoned by this scum of the publishing
house. Every book in which sin triumphs
over virtue, or in which a glamour is
thrown over dissipation, respect for
the marriage institution and less
adherence for the paramour, is a depres
sion of your own moral character. The
book binding may be attractive, and the
plot dramatic and startling, and the style
of writing sweet as the honey that Jona-
than dipped up with his rod, but your
best interests forbid il, your moral safety
forbids it. your God forbids it, and one
taste Of it may lead to such bad results
that you may have TO say at the close of
the experiment, or at the close of mis-
improved lifetime;
/ did but taste a little honey with the rod that
was in my hand and 10, must die.
Corrupt literature is doing more to-day
for the disruption of domestic life than
any other cause. Elopements, marital in
trigues, sly correspondence, fictitious
az, o1a~
destine meetings in parks, and at ferry
gates, and in hotel parIOrs, and con5ugal
perjuries are among the damnable results. |
When a woman, young or old, gets her
head thoroughly stuffed with the modern |
novel she is in appalling peril But some |
one will say: 1.-The heroes are so adroitly 1
knav.ah, and the persons so bewitching-
so exquisite, and all the charao- |
ters 50 enrapturing, can not |
quit them" My brother, my sister, yOu 1
can find STYLES Of literature just as charm |
ing that will elevate and purify, and en- |
noble, and Christianize while they please. /
The devil does not own all the honey. /
There is a wealth Of good books coming /
forth from our publishing houses that 4
leave no excuse for the choice Of that |
which is debauching to body, mind and 1
soul. Go 10 some intelligent men or 1
women, and ask for "A list Of books that /
will be streng thening to your mental and /
moral condition. Life is so short and I
your time for improvements 50 abbreviated, .
that you can not afford to i'll up with I
husks, and eInders, and debris. In the 4
intersttces OF business that young man il
reading that which viii prepare him TO
be a merchant prince, and that young
woman Is filling her mind with an intelii I
gence that viii yet either make her the
chief attraction OF a good mans home, or
give her an Independence OF character
that vii quai1s ber 10 build Der own
boate sud maintain IL Ia q happlnsss
IhaE requires 80 augmentation from
any or our Toughs1 sex Ehat young 4
man u young woman car y ths
-5g3sr IfeeTnrv and moral improve 3